Russell T Davies, showrunner, writer, and executive producer for Dr Who spin-off The War Between The Land and The Sea talks about the making of the show, alongside co-writer and executive producer Pete McTighe.
The series, produced by Bad Wolf with BBC Studios for the BBC and Disney Branded TV, showcases how the world reacts when a fearsome and ancient species emerges from the ocean, dramatically revealing themselves to humanity and triggering an international crisis.
Barclay (Russell Tovey) is a low-level UNIT staff member whose ordinary life becomes a world of terror when an ancient species rises from the sea. He becomes humanity’s ambassador when the mysterious Salt (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) emerges from the Tank at a summit on the Thames. And UNIT, led by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), fights for control as humanity faces destruction.
Executive Producers for Bad Wolf are Joel Collins, Jane Tranter, Julie Gardner & Phil Collinson. The series is directed by Dylan Holmes Williams.
Russell T Davies, showrunner, writer, and executive producer
How did the idea for The War Between the Land and the Sea come about?
The story has been stewing for a long time. I’m very lucky to live by the sea, it’s a short walk from my house to a bench that overlooks the view all the way to Cornwall. As a Doctor Who fan, you automatically start to imagine the sea is alive, so it kind of grew from thoughts like that. It’s also the state of the environment and the awful things we’re doing to the sea.
All of that rose up at the same time, while wanting to do something new with the world of Doctor Who, expand it, and find new ways to tell stories. One of the most interesting things you can do with Doctor Who is to take the Doctor out. This is a world without the Doctor, and we’re seeing how we cope as the human race. There are monsters, there’s romance, there are chases, there’s gunfights – It’s a properly entertaining thriller going out across five episodes on BBC iPlayer and BBC One.
What is the tone of the series?
The tone is adventure. It’s little bit tougher than Doctor Who, it takes on tougher themes, and people have tougher reactions in it, again, because there’s no Doctor. Normally the Doctor has a magic blue doorway they can take everybody safely through, that safety net has gone. You very much find these characters up against the wall and pushed to the limit.
Do you need to have watched Doctor Who to enjoy the series?
You don’t at all. It starts from Barclay’s point of view, the most ordinary man in the world who finds himself in the middle of a great big worldwide crisis by accident. It’s a lovely story of the everyday man finding himself out of his depth. It features UNIT from Doctor Who, but interestingly Kate Lethbridge-Stewart doesn’t arrive until thirty minutes into the first episode. She then becomes centre stage. We very much take new viewers into consideration, and we refresh all viewers with the lores of what’s gone before, and we add some new stuff. It’s for everyone, and the fact it’s going out around Christmas is gorgeous, it’s such a great time of year.
How was the process writing the series alongside Pete McTighe?
I’ve known Pete for many years, and I love his writing. When we were first setting up Doctor Who again, he was busy with The Pact, then The Pact 2, so he was unavailable. When this came along, I ran the first script past him and I knew he would love it, I know his taste very well. I knew he’d bite onto that primetime thrill. He loves that stuff and it’s the kind of stuff he writes, so it was a very easy process.
How much research went into the writing of the scripts?
A lot. I tend to keep files on my computer of stuff that I’m interested in, and I’ve researched the sea ever since I’ve bought my home in Swansea. When it comes to writing, it becomes real, so you have to do double the research of everything you read in case it’s not true. Even with the history of the Sea Devils in Doctor Who, I had to go back and research that, and there were lots of gaps in the history that our script editor came and filled in. We consulted professors of genetics to research how Homo Aqua could have branched off from mankind millions of years ago. That was fun, I loved doing that.
What was it like to see your vision be brought to life in the sets?
I’m so excited by the look of this, it’s absolutely gorgeous. We have a central setting called the Empress Hall that’s so full of supporting artists, it makes my heart sing! We’ve been able to focus the look, because for Doctor Who you’re often having to create spaceships and time windows and the TARDIS, whereas for this most of our sets are concentrated on the real world. At the same time, we create great big swaggering moments of imagination because we do go underwater to the realm of the Sea Devils, what we call the ‘Homo Aqua habitat’. That’s a glorious visual. Our design team has done such a brilliant job.
What was it like working with Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw? What made them perfect for their roles?
I have worked with Russell a lot, I think he’s not only a fine actor, but he’s also a leader of men. I adore him. Barclay is very much an everyman character, and it becomes a very serious role, but Russell always finds moments of comedy in it. It really pushes him to his full range. Up against that you get Gugu, who I still can’t believe we got to play this part.
We’ve seen a lot of female actors playing parts like this over the years, especially recently with the whole explosion of the Marvel and DC Universes, but I think this is the greatest performance inside prosthetics I’ve ever seen. It’s subtle, clever, commanding, and noble. The depth and breadth of what she portrays with Russell has been the greatest joy. To then bring in one of the great spines of the Doctor Who world, which is Kate Lethbridge-Stewart played by Jemma Redgrave, who I, and the entire crew, adore. To give Jemma free rein like this has been the most incredible experience. She takes that character to areas you’ve never imagined.
What are you most excited for the audience to see in the series, and what would you like them to take away from it?
I just want them to come along for a great story. I hope they come out thrilled and that every cliffhanger draws them back the next week. I think there’s a lot to think about in terms of what we’re doing to the oceans, but let’s face it, we should be thinking about that anyway. It’s a love story, it’s an adventure, and it has a shocking climax. It really pushes the envelope of what you can achieve, and I’m so happy with everything the cast and crew have done.
Do you think there could be different species lurking in the ocean?
In the depths we still discover things, I think I’d go looking at the volcanos myself!
Pete McTighe, writer, executive producer
How would you describe The War Between the Land and the Sea?
The War Between is quite different in tone to Doctor Who. It’s a shared universe, but because we have five hours to explore this story, we’re able to tell it very differently. I’m always attracted to longer-form storytelling, to writing propulsive thrillers with big cliffhangers, and of course Doctor Who has been my favourite TV programme since I was a kid, so for me this was the perfect mix.
We’re able to spend a lot more time with the characters and dig a bit deeper – someone like Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), for example, we’ve been seeding little bits of story for her across the last few series of Who and we’re now able to pay those off. And then for new characters like Barclay (Russell Tovey) and Salt (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the journey that both these characters go on across the series is really quite epic, so it’s great that we have five episodes to tell their story.
How was the process writing the series alongside Russell T Davies?
Oh, it’s been a gift. Russell and I have known each other a long time now, we got to know each other far away from Doctor Who so to end up working with my favourite writer, on my dream show, for him to invite me in, to trust me with something like this, felt like such a privilege. His first episode really set the template for the series, the tone and the characters were so clear, and I just built on that. He had ideas about how the series would progress and for each episode we’d just sit down and chat for a few hours then off I went to write. He’s incredibly generous and trusting and I had so much fun building on the world he’d created. We had a lot of laughs, and found a lot of joy in the process. I hope we get to do it again sometime.
Where did you draw your inspiration from?
Doctor Who has a rich history, and Malcolm Hulke was the writer who first dreamt up the concept of the Sea Devils – a race of creatures who lived on our planet long before us. This show stands as a tribute to him and his idea, really. That initial adventure (1972’s The Sea Devils) inspired me, but the biggest inspiration of course was the state of the world around us. I mean, look at what we’ve done to the oceans and climate across the 20th century. This was a story crying out to be told, and to be told now.
The scale of the series is massive, what was it like to see your vision brought to life in the sets, special effects and costumes?
I have to admit, when I was writing the massive action sequence at the heart of episode 2, I was thinking ‘how the hell are we going to actually shoot this’? But I wrote it anyway. And that happened time and time again – there are BIG set pieces in this show, at least one in every episode, and we managed to achieve them because we had an incredible director, producer and crew who all believed in the show and were absolutely committed to making it work.
It still blows my mind that everything Russell and I wrote has ended up on screen, looking so good. The scale of the sets was incredible – I mean when you see the Empress Hall, it’s hard to believe that wasn’t a real location, let alone where we go in Episode 3. Our production designers Erica McEwan and Julian Luxton worked wonders. The special effects added in post-production just elevate the show to a whole new level, that team led by Seb Barker is incredible. And our fantastic costume designer Rachel Walsh made sure everyone looked amazing – no mean feat when you look at the amount of people in the Empress Hall scenes.
These interviews were conducted by the BBC
Pippa Considine
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